Iron Hill: A sneak peak

What a way to spend a Saturday …

Iron Hill Brewery co-owner Mark Edelson was filling growlers (that's Mark on the left in the second photo), trying to get just the right pour in the half-gallon brown glass jugs, pausing between takes to tweak settings beneath a brushed-metal control panel door to a German-manufactured filler, the first at any Iron Hill location, and the first such growler device to be put into use by a New Jersey brewpub. (Production brewer Climax in Roselle Park has a six-head, counter-pressure filler for the half-gallon jugs the brewery uses for bottling. Owner Dave Hoffmann, a machinist before he turned brewer, designed and built his filler). After a while, it looked like Mark had the right calibration, and two growlers, filled with Pig Iron Porter and India Black Ale, were rung up for sale.

If you’re the kind of beer drinker who likes to take something home after your afternoon or evening at the brewpub, then you’ll appreciate Mark’s efforts, which came on a day that Iron Hill folks spent smoothing out everything ahead of their grand opening in Maple Shade on Monday (doors open at 5 p.m.).

The filler is of benefit to both the beer drinker and the pub.

On principle, it works much like a bottling line: It purges air in the jug by filling it first with CO2; then it floods the container with beer via a tube inserted down into the jug, topping off the fill with a jet of beer to kick up some foam as a final air purge, after which the jug’s cap is screwed on by hand.

What it means for you is better shelf life in your refrigerator (it doesn’t change the fact that once you open the growler, you should do what you can to finish those four pints, or risk it degassing). For the pub, it should be more efficient than the widely practiced approach of half filling the jug and letting the foam settle before topping it off. That can eat up precious time on busy nights, and you can end up with an underpour if a pub is slamming busy. (For the record, the only time we ever got an underpour was in Massachusetts.)

If you go back about 10 years or more, some brewpubs used to slip a clear, vinyl tube (like what many homebewers use for racking) onto the tap and fill the jug from the bottom up. That practice fell out of fashion for some reason. However, The Ship Inn in Milford still does it.

The grand opening of its eighth location is surely to be a sweet moment for Iron Hill, and comes after two years of scouting sites and seriously trying to finally bring to New Jersey the brewpub model that has worked for Garden State natives Edelson and his partners, Kevin Finn and Kevin Davies, first in Delaware and then Pennsylvania.

One Jersey site that had been under consideration was the upscale Sagemore/Promenade plaza on busy Route 73 in Marlton, a great location to be sure. And we say the folks who own that site screwed themselves by not working out a deal with Iron Hill, because Redstone and PF Chang’s can’t come close to what IH does.

The brewpub, at 124 East Kings Highway, is spacious and well-appointed, a relaxing atmosphere that's quite conducive to conversation. The wait staff is attentive and makes it their business to know as much about the beers as the food (after all, beer is food).

Speaking of the beers, Iron Hill’s nine taps are built on a foundation of five house beers. Toss in a tap always dedicated to a Belgian style – you’ll find a wit occupying that tap on opening day – a pair of seasonals and a nitrogen tap that right now features a must-try keller version of their Ironbound Ale (4.7% ABV), an American-style pale ale that went bronze at the Great American Beer Festival in 2005. To begin with, Ironbound is an even competition of malt and hop flavors wrapped up in a session beer. But the unfiltered, nitro version has this dense creamy head that stays with you to the bottom of the glass.

A beer that should pique your interest is that India Black Pale, an amped-up, IPA turn of their American ale (6.3% ABV), deepened with black malt and dry-hopped with Horizon hops.

But don’t just take our word for it. Find out for yourself on Monday.

The Big Picture

Here’s video from last month's Garden State Craft Brewers Festival. To those who inquired more than once about its completion date, sorry for the delay. And to those who paused from their sampling or pouring to do an interview, many thanks.

If you went to the festival, you know the weather pretty much sucked. But thankfully the rain, while poncho-worthy, was intermittent. The guild puts the festival attendance at 630, and the event marked the New Jersey debut of Iron Hill Brewery. (IH co-founder Mark Edelson and head brewer Chris Lapierre took time do interviews for the video.)

A word about the guild fests
We’ll take this moment to repeat an oft-said point (on this blog, at least): Having the festival in Camden, or South Jersey if you want to track it regionally, is fine if there will be at least a second festival, specifically in North Jersey. You could toss in a third for the middle part of the state, since New Jersey is actually and distinctly of three regions, as far as its cultural stylings go.

A single festival in South Jersey becomes forgettable in the long run, and North Jersey folks can be hard-pressed to drum up the desire to travel the distance (a shout-out to Tom Eagan of the Destination Beer blog, who did come down from Jersey City on the 20th and made an admirable daytrip of things). And for argument’s sake, if there were but a single festival in North Jersey, the shoe of disdain would be on South Jersey’s foot.

So two festivals becomes important. At some point, it's about branding, and brand awareness. And by branding, we mean broadly speaking the New Jersey brand, the big picture, collectively the great beers made by the pub and craft brewers inside the state’s borders.

Since the guild’s festival is the only one that’s granted the dispensation to have the beer poured by the people who made it (therefore brewers can really talk to the consumers), it becomes important again to capitalize on that opportunity for face time with the beer-consuming public and remind those folks not just about your beer, but your very existence (you can’t do tastings at the package stores in this state). Because there’s a flood of beer on the store shelves from across the country and around the world, almost too much to choose from, sort of Alvin Toffler-ish/Future Shock-like, when you consider that back in the 1980s, the choices were dramatically narrower. The home team is in peril of being overshadowed by the plethora of labels now. (Yet once upon a time, Jersey had a plethora of labels brewed within its borders.)

It’s good for the consumer, the veritable panorama of choices, but not so hot for the concept of buying local being the new organic.

And that, in the end, is the big picture.

Iron Hill opening on 7/20

Iron Hill is set to open the doors of its New Jersey brewpub to the beer-enjoying public on Monday at 5 p.m., preceded by a ceremonial first pour with the media at 4 p.m.

We'd like to think of IH's opening as a small step for an established and respected brewpub brand that has eight locations spread among Delaware, Pennsylvania and now New Jersey. But you could say it's really a giant leap for the Garden State, which hasn't seen a new brewery/brewpub open in 10 years.

The folks behind Iron Hill – Kevin Finn, Kevin Davies and Mark Edelson – are from New Jersey and have long wanted to return to their home state with the brewpub model they found success with in the First State and the Keystone State. But the big ball of red tape that is New Jersey makes opening a new business, like a brewery, a daunting challenge. (Too much control is ceded to municipalities, and state government does little to encourage business development.)

But Iron Hill is here. Happily.

Cheers.

Fall through

This is a little disappointing, especially if you live in the northern part of the state. But there is some hope on the distant horizon.

The Garden State Craft Brewers Guild won’t be staging a second festival this year, like the one last fall at the Newark Bears minor league baseball stadium. Guild folks say a deal for a venue can’t be nailed down in time to sufficiently advertise a date for this fall to draw a good-size crowd.

That said, guild folks are scouting around for a place to hold an early- or mid-spring 2010 festival in addition to the annual summer festival that has moored itself to the decks of the USS New Jersey. Stadiums at Montclair State University and Somerville (the Somerset Patriots field) are being eyed for a spring festival.

The disappointment here is, obviously, that if you didn’t make it to the battleship this year, you missed the boat as far guild brew fests for 2009 go. It’s perhaps harder on the folks in North Jersey, who have had to travel to Camden for the past five years to sample the brews of guild members in one sitting.

Camden’s not exactly the idea of a dream destination for those folks, and if you talk to some longtime fans of Jersey-made beers who live above I-195, they will invariably bring up the halcyon days of the late 1990s, when the guild festival was held at Waterloo Village. But those days are long gone, and the festival eventually dropped anchor in Camden, to the satisfaction of South Jersey.

Cross your fingers that 2010 will indeed yield two festivals and be the dawn of an era in which the guild keeps a light on in both halves of the state.

Meanwhile, the version 3 of the Central Jersey Beer Festival is set for Sept. 19 in Woodbridge. And, Pizzeria Uno down the road in Metuchen is likely to repeat their cask ale festival yet again during the fall. Stay tuned.

Video
Speaking of festivals, the video we shot last month aboard the battleship in Camden will be up toward the end of this week. Some people have asked about when they could see it, and we expected it to be up by today. But the computer and a linked pair of external hard drives aren't playing nice with one another. The technical trouble should be resolved very soon.

Cheers.

Time to exit this

MADD strikes a more moderate tone in the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill regarding Flying Fish's Exit Series beers.

Two months of running in place on the same topic ... Now's a good time to shift things out of neutral, move forward and exit this debate, or at least adapt it to the times (see here, and here, page 3 of the table).

Exit to ale ... and so it goes

There's an AP story on the wires and Internet in which MADD gets annoyed at Flying Fish's Exit Series.

Nothing truly new in this, unless you're looking for a release date for the hoppy American wheat ale that will be Exit 11 (it's July 15th, and alas a media event to kick things off is being held in Philadelphia that day, not New Jersey. Sort of flies in the face of the talked-up homage to Jerseyana. But then, Philadelphia is, was and probably always will be a top market for Flying Fish, so there's that to consider). And when we say "nothing new," we mean the very same argument/gripe trotted out in June is being recycled a mere month later. Who cares if it's coming from a different mouth this time?

If you read The Associated Press story, you get the impression that Mothers Against Drunk Driving was contacted for comment (a completely logical thing to do as far as news reporting goes; and honestly, where was MADD a month ago when the chance to grouse about this was on the front burner?), as opposed to MADD getting out its long knives to fillet the Fish with a protest, à la a news conference at the start of a major travel holiday (such as last week's Fourth of July celebrations), something the organization is known to do. Not that we're advocating MADD tee off on a brewery; hardly, since we think MADD, nationally, has become a temperance league – as in all beer, liquor and wine are bad or lead to trouble – and especially since we thought the New Jersey Turnpike Authority needed to lighten up when it was getting fussy last month over this. But it is curious that the freshest news release on the Web site for the New Jersey chapter of MADD is dated 2006. The Exit Series gripe isn't even mentioned on MADD-NJ.

And, if you ask us, The Star-Ledger's headline on the story sort of oversells things. MADD gets second fiddle following some more of the Turnpike Authority frowning and resignation at Flying Fish's First Amendment rights (which the Exit Series wholly is). The balance of the story, aside from more rebuttal from FF, is about the beer series, not about how MADD intends to get madder over this. A mild slam, it would seem.

This item made WCBS radio in New York this afternoon, with audio comment from MADD folks (in which they did indeed slam FF, saying they were "appalled") coupled with some renewed deflection from Gene Muller at Flying Fish in Cherry Hill (he has proffered once before that drinking and driving are an unthinkable combination, something anyone could guess). But oddly enough, WCBS did this same story three weeks ago – after Channel 4 in New York did a take on the Turnpike folks having a conniption, after the TollroadsNews Web site broke the story (if you want to call it that). In CBS' report back then, the station spoke to Gene, but never went after the MADD angle. Hmmm.

And now a news day in the slow lane once again today.

And so it goes ...

PS: One thing about the Exit Series that does come to mind these seven months into FF's program for 2009 and as far as keeping beer denizens far and wide interested: 18 exits, 3 beers a year = 6 years of taking exits. The turnpike's a long road, indeed. Maybe the US Mint has some tips after 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, 52 quarters and 10 years.

River Horse update

There's a brewer change at River Horse to report.

Head brewer Christian Ryan is off to London, where his wife was transferred by her employer. Replacing Christian is Greg Papp, an alumus of Victory Brewing and Shipyard Brewing, and most recently the BJ's Restaurant & Brewery chain.

More to come soon.

Happy Independence Day*

Celebrating the 4th and continued independence from crappy, dumbed-down beer … Budweiser the king of beers? Nay, the beer equivalent of George III, our improvident former overlord who was overthrown.

Now is also a good time to renew a shout-out to Rick Reed’s Campaign for New Jersey Beer, his call to muster pride and support for Jersey-brewed beer.

From Rick: "New Jersey breweries make some of the finest beers on earth and if you are a New Jersey bar then you should serve at least one New Jersey beer. Have some pride in our state, it doesn't matter which brewery from NJ but have at least one!!!"

Small-batch beer is a thread that runs through the origins of this country. Everyone who’s really into beer knows that Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, turned to brewing in retirement from public life. (TRIVIA: Jefferson is among three US presidents who checked out on July 4th, the other two being his rival, John Adams, and James Monroe.)

Jefferson, of course, wasn't alone as a homebrewer. As prominent people of their day, the Founding Fathers were of the means to maintain personal breweries at their estates. If you’re a homebrewer, celebrate your connection to them. It's all about freedom and independence.

*Fireworks display shot July 4, 2009, at Lake Pohatcong in Tuckerton, NJ.

Hops slideshow

These Centennials are almost ready to pick. The bines are producing in waves, so by early to mid-August another harvest will be likely.

Tankard time

OK, so they’re not really tankards here, but Basil T’s in Toms River does a commendable job with its mug club dinner, that occasion when you can renew your membership for the year or sign up to become a member. This year's is set for 6:30 on Friday evening (find details here; look under menus on the left column; the dinner link is at the bottom).

(FYI: If you actually are looking for tankards, need the feel of pewter in your hands, The Ship Inn in Milford uses them in its club.)

If you’re a beer fan in the Toms River area, then you probably already keep a seat at Basil’s warm and a pint of Dave Hoffmann’s pub-brewed beer in front of you. (Dave, as many folks know, is also the owner of Climax Brewing in Roselle Park; being the brewer at Basil’s affords him a beer alter-ego.) But if you’re a beer trekker and the brewpub is a travel destination, then it helps to know this event is one of two with beer as the centerpiece that Basil’s pulls out the all the stops for. The other is their Oktoberfest, and both are worth putting on your calendar.

Cheers. See you there.

Draft Magazine swings and misses

Not to beat up on them, but Draft Magazine completely zoned out with this. How they followed this item and came up with New Jersey as the culprit is anyone's guess.

The NewJerseyNewsroom.com story is merely localizing a national story, and in this case, how a federal excise tax increase would hurt Garden State microbreweries, like other brewers nationwide. Sen. Bob Menendez was contacted for comment to further localize the issue and even said nothing is set in stone. Even a skim of the story would guide you to the conclusion of a national issue being localized.

Anyway this is our posted response to what Draft Magazine's Web editor wrote (FYI: We did minor style editing and fixes to our hasty writing on Draft's site):

Although we’re reluctant to defend politicians, we do have to take exception to this brief about the excise tax and reasons to avoid New Jersey.

Not to seem obnoxious correcting you, but it is the federal excise tax you are referring to. And while Sen. Bob Menendez of NJ is on the US Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus of Montana is the chairman. And so far it is only talk of raising excise taxes. Also, as an FYI, the soft drink industry could be asked to pony up, too. This is all connected to Congress’ plans to overhaul the US healthcare system, so it’s improbable that a single state would be behind it.

The folks at the Brewers Association put out an action alert on this.

But meanwhile, there is another bill that proposes halving the federal excise taxes on beer. You’ll find information about that on the Brewers Association site, too.

Perhaps you’re confusing the federal measure with the New Jersey Legislature’s increase in the state's tax on liquor and wine. That budget measure excluded beer, and Governor Jon Corzine’s administration, although a bit ham-handedly, stressed that beer was excluded from the increase.

And again, not to seem rude, but your space is better spent calling on beer enthusiasts to write their lawmakers and register their objections to a tax hike, and not singling out a particular state for blame, which, in this case, is completely erroneous.

Again, we're not trying to beat up on Draft Magazine (although they did disparage New Jersey for no discernible reason, other than the apparent cliche of making Jersey the butt of a joke). But their interpretation of things is just so hopelessly flawed, totally mangled.

Craft Brewers Guild Festival on Saturday

The Garden State Craft Brewers Guild 13th Annual Beer Festival, as it's billed on the organization's Web site, is Saturday (1-5 p.m.) in Camden aboard the USS New Jersey. (Note to the guild: Not to be a pain, but it's time to update the festival announcements on the Web site. It proclaims 16 breweries, but there are only 14 members listed under the guild membership tab. Even when you toss in soon-to-open Iron Hill Brewery, which is expected to debut its beers in New Jersey aboard the ship on Saturday, that only makes 15. Plus, Krogh's in Sparta rarely pours at this festival.)

Also, it's a little unfortunate that the guild's site doesn't indicate a festival for the fall. But some guild members say there is the intention to repeat a fall festival, like the one in Newark last October. One of the observations that arose after that festival was attendance suffered because the planning came together late and there wasn't sufficient time to get word out.

Alas.

Hopefully on Saturday (which unfortunately is forecast to be rainy) the guild will have handouts about a fall festival, as was done last year. Still, it would beneficial to have a little buzz about it going on the Web site now, even if the planning has not totally gelled.

Anyway, here's what the 11th and 12th festivals in Camden looked like.

IF YOU GO:

• Tickets are 40 bucks and appear to still be available.
• Parking is available for 10 bucks at the garage across from Adventure Aquarium. Shuttle buses from the garage run regularly to and from the ship.
• Food concessions are on the ship. It's the usual fare, but at the past couple of festivals the vendor has been better than some you'll find at similar events.

Portrait of a Lone Hop in the Rain

Exit to ale, reprise

If you believe Toll Road News, there’s some frowning at the Woodbridge headquarters of the New Jersey Turnpike over Flying Fish and its Exit Series beers. If that’s the case, then the Turnpike Authority should lighten up.

From a chat with Gene Muller, Flying Fish’s president, it seems the fuss is a little overblown, but not without a PR dividend for the brewery. The static comes from fears over the potential for assumptions, albeit erroneous, that the Turnpike is behind the beer.

That’s funny, since Flying Fish doesn’t use the word turnpike on its labels or related Web site. And you can't get an Exit beer at the Molly Pitcher rest stop, nor an Exit 4 T-shirt anywhere but Flying Fish.

Also, the brewery isn't infringing on any trademarks. (You can’t trademark that highway-sign color of green; nor can you trademark the word exit; the shape of the Turnpike’s sign is trademarked, however.)

In the grand scheme of things, this is about the New Jersey Turnpike as iconography and pop culture. The Flying Fish series is an homage to something distinctly New Jersey. And last we checked, the Exit Series celebrates that slice of Jerseyana; it does not mock it, like so many comedians and a recent headline in Draft Magazine.

Still, in the face of all this gear grinding, the brewery’s Web site for the Exit Series now features a disclaimer now (pictured; click to enlarge).

Any authority concerns about drinking and driving were met with the reply that Flying Fish folks don’t condone drinking and driving (they never have; nor does any Jersey micro or pub brewery), and that they drive the same roads as everyone else.

(The dim view of roads and beer or wine or liquor mentioned in the same breath is a knee-jerk association to DUI, a propensity to see a dark side. The thinking person knows better, knows it's not fait accompli. It's unfortunate and makes you wonder when you consider this: Five years ago, Buena Vista Township in Atlantic County temporarily changed the name of its mint-growing section of Richland to Mojito. Why? Because Bacardi gave the town 5 grand for the promotion, and got a mojito sign along Route 40, the main highway through town. Last we checked, a mojito was made not with just mint, but rum, too. And this event went over with not a hubub, but feature stories written about it. Go figure.)

Gene did suggest the Turnpike shouldn’t be spending money on lawyers to swat at a small, taxpaying business. (A lawyer contacted the brewery to press the authority's concerns; there's no cease and desist notice that we know of.) Tolls pay the Turnpike’s bills; who needs a toll hike because the Turnpike Authority took a wrong turn down a legal dead-end?

In the long run, all of this attention proves beneficial for Flying Fish. Exit 11, the second installament of the series, is due out soon. News media from the surrounding region have been working the story. (Update: Channel 4 in New York did a somewhat dour turn on the dispute on the 6 o'clock news. Their written version has a lame headline pun.)

A day in the slow lane for the news outlets perhaps, but a grand avenue of exposure for the beer.

One final word: We’ve dealt with Joe Orlando from the Turnpike Authority, going back to our AP days. And while the Turnpike Authority's concerns are understandable, the tone and disparaging remarks in the Toll Road News story seem out of character. Even on the worst of days, i.e. bad news coming out of the Turnpike, Joe was always helpful and candid, never coarse. Hence, some doubts about Toll Road News.

Catching up

This is something we intended to do a month ago, but we never could find the results of the contest. Until now.

Here's the top winner of the American Homebrewers Association Big Brew 2009 YouTube contest (we won it last year.) Great job, cool animated intro.

Cheers and congrats to all the winners.

Sobering the numbers

If you read this, then you should also read this, and this. The latter should sober up the fear reflex by supplying some perspective.

That research about campus binge drinking, done by an agency that exists to hand-wring about binge drinking, would come back with numbers showing an even greater binge drinking crisis should surprise no one.

If the numbers went down, would the research get a headline? Maybe. But, realistically, in an era in which a little fear goes a long way, lower numbers would probably just sail under the radar. (A little conditioning goes just as far, and we've all been conditioned to accept the viewpoint that crises only get worse, never better, let alone question whether they were ever a crisis to begin with.)

Let's hope those massive (yet encouraging) street protests in Iran over their election continue, so there's truly some significant news to report. Otherwise, this puffed-up piffle will claim unjustified airtime on the 24-hour news channels. It's probably already going to be the next health segment on the local broadcast news stations tonight, given their propensity to pick low-hanging fruit.

Alas.

More hops

It's been a rainy late spring, but the Centennials have held up fine, with cones coming in all over the place. These images are of some of the smaller bines.

Yesterday's gone

OK, time to cop to something.

Yes, calling Guinness a "yesteryear" beer was a dig at the beer. Sort of.

This comes up by way of email from a former co-worker (from our days at the sweatshop AP news bureau in Trenton) who asked if the Campaign for New Jersey Beer post of Thursday took a swipe at Guinness.

Again, yes. Sort of.

Guinness still tastes good (try the 250th anniversary edition; it's rich and tasty). And in those bars that Rick Reed and other Jersey brewers legitimately complain about, Guinness is a good buy when all the other options are Coors Light, Bud, Michelob Ultra (as in ultra bland) ... The list goes on.

Samuel Adams falls into the same cateogry, a good pint when the rest of the taps aren't worth wasting the calories on. (Jim Koch and Boston Beer, however, deserve a pass. The Samuel Adams brand clearcut the forest to make the road toward better beers, if not proving that you can become the next era of brewing in markets homogenized by Bud, Coors and Miller.)

So why, then, is Guinness yesteryear?

It's a generational thing. Guinness had cult-like status in the late 1980s, early 1990s in several parts of New Jersey. At that time, few bars went to the trouble to deal with that nitrogen-dispensed draft system that allowed Guinness its dense, creamy head and smooth texture. Why bother if you could count your Guinness customers on one hand?

One of the bars in our area, during our Asbury Park Press days, that did go to the trouble was the Drafting Table in Bradley Beach, where you could find Guinness on tap almost 20 years ago. And if memory serves, the Drafting Table occasionally had John Courage Amber on draft, too, a rather inviting British beer at the time.

It doesn't seem like much to sing the praises of either now, given that you can easily get your hands on a fat, heavy bottle of Kasteel Donker, if you're willing to part with 9 bucks. But in 1990, it was a big deal to shift from Heineken to darker beers without having to pass through the doors of a knowledgeable packaged goods store. And it's worth pointing out, too, that at this time, Samuel Adams wasn't a sure thing to find on tap. Or in even bottles behind the bar.

So, indeed, you were hip back then if you even liked Guinness; hipper still if you knew the flavor difference between Guinness on draft and Guinness Extra Stout in the bottle (draft was smoother, thanks to the nitrogen; bottled Extra was a different animal – the fizzy carbonation made the roasted and black patent malts more prickly, almost harsh on the palate). You were a trendsetter if you knew of bars that went the extra mile to carry Guinness on draft.

And Guinness was cool. The John Gilroy advertising illustrations from the 1930s, featuring the menagerie of zoo animals, now played to a new generation in the 1990s on glassware and T-shirts. A former Asbury Park Press co-worker even visited the Guinness brewery in Dublin, returning with gifts for fellow Guinness drinkers, while yet another former co-worker regaled us with tales of pubcrawling in Ireland.

What changed things?

The microbrewing industry finally caught up to New Jersey in the mid-90s. That and Jim Koch challenged you to step up to flavor. And there was portable draft Guinness, the four-pack of cans (those bottles of Guinness draft didn't hit the area market until about 2000-01). Guinness finally found a wider fan base. More taphandles too. Exponentially more compared to 1990. Guinness in the bar and grill these days is as common as salt shakers on the tables, and noticeably absent if it's not on tap. Or at least in cans behind the bar.

Some of that hipness has been lost to time and the increased ranks (see what we mean by generational). And these days, there are plenty of reasons to explore other beers, like that oatmeal cookie stout Triumph occasionally brews – and pours under nitrogen. It's an exceptionally well-done beer.

So is Guinness yesteryear? Respectfully, yes, when the landscape is dotted with so many beer choices, whether from breweries native to the home state (this is a Jersey-centric blog) or the surrounding environs.

But nonetheless, Guinness is still in our fridge. Probably always will be.

Campaign for New Jersey Beer*

Been there, been living it: Think Jersey, drink Jersey.

But this like-minded initiative is all about putting a bug in someone’s ear, namely bar owners.

For six weeks now, Rick Reed has used his Friday night sermons from the mash tun at Cricket Hill Brewery to imbue the tour crowds to be foot soldiers in a rebellion to get New Jersey beers on tap at Jersey bars that find it fashionable to crowd their tap space with crappy Coors Light, yesteryear's Guinness, and that god-awful Bass wannabe, Smithwick's.

Those crowds in Fairfield are running about 130- to 150-people strong each week, and Rick’s arming his legions with cards that bear the name of the cause – Campaign for New Jersey Beer – and are to be left with bars and restaurants' wait staff, bartenders or managers. The accompanying text on the cards explains that Garden State brewers make topnotch beers, and bars in New Jersey should have at least one of those beers on tap. It’s a matter of taking pride in something that's made in the state.

On another level, the cards are the equivalent of a polite boycott, since the person leaving the one intends to not patronize the establishment until a Jersey beer gets tap space.

Of course, Rick’s preference is to see Cricket Hill tap handles grow from this action, and he says his draft accounts have jumped by a half dozen since the campaign started. Whether that’s directly related to his foot soldiers and the 1,000 cards that have been passed out so far is anyone’s guess, he says.

But the six new accounts are welcome business, and the awareness served by the cards is undeniably important: Drink Jersey-made beers. They’re local, they’re fresh, and they can hold their own against anything on the store shelves that pours in from New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, California, Massachusetts, Delaware or Europe.

Meanwhile, this thought came to mind after reading about Carrotmobs in a recent issue of Time magazine. In effect, the movement is a reverse boycott: rewarding businesses with patronage in exchange, in the case of Carrotmobs' requests, for going green.

It would seem like there’s potential for applying that technique to Jersey bars, prevailing en masse upon those places to put the locally made beers on tap and rewarding those bars with regular patronage. Granted, it’s easier, and perhaps more noble, to get businesses to change their light bulbs to CFLs, but we think the idea has potential for Jersey beer somehow.

Who knows, Jersey Maltmobs may be the next story in Time.


* FYI: The graphic above is of our making for the purpose of this post.

Roll out the barrel

If you like Ramstein Maibock (we do), then this is something you don't want to miss: Ramstein Maibock, barrel-aged and dry-hopped with fresh Hallertauer hops.

The dry-hopping may break from tradition with a German style beer, but American brewers have been making their mark by rewriting the rules (double IPA, anyone?) and coloring outside the lines. This is one in which High Point Brewing steps in with its expertise and sets the pace.

The tricked-out, limited version of the bock tops the bill for High Point's June open house this Saturday (2-4 p.m.), backed up with the Ramstein flight of Blonde, Dunkel Weiss and Blazing Amber.

And if you're a Ramones, Blondie or Lou Reed fan, the added bonus for Saturday is you can glimpse photos of those performers from their heady days, courtesy of Lower Third Enterprise. The images will be on exhibit and for sale.

You don't need the Reverend Horton Heat to tell you that rock 'n' roll and beer go together like Les and Paul.

Meanwhile, we trekked up to Berkeley Heights in Union County on Wednesday for a chat with Trap Rock brewer Charlie Schroeder (more on that very soon) and to visit a brewpub that's worth the two-hour drive from our southern Ocean County shores. (There's a classy polish to Trap Rock that you quickly come to appreciate once past the entrance. And even with a seven-barrel system, Charlie keeps nine house beers flowing, plus a version of one of those on a handpump.)

Pictured is the lovely and gracious Melissa Hudasko, slightly reprising her New York Times pose from last year.

An egregious miscarriagement of taxitude*

Higher state taxes on spirits and wine? Passed on by restaurants to the consumer? Faint ...

There's been a bit of backlash by consumers with QWERTY access, teeing off on restaurants, posting complaints about the threat to pass on a 25 percent increase in those taxes.

It's pretty much misplaced blame to do that. Here's why:

Restaurants don't stay in business by losing money; nor can they eat every rise in their overhead. Last year, anything made with flour cost more because of stupid government policy skewed toward corn as the raw material for ethanol (more corn planted, less of wheat and barley); delivery charges went up when crude oil prices (futures prices, that is) hit the moon; and the list goes on.

The places you dine at were doing what they could last year to manage those headaches. And their migraine has lingered into this year with a downturn in business that they're struggling to make up. (Consider this: You should support your favorite restaurants if you can. The patrons they stand to lose aren't just someone else; they are you, too, if you're staying away in protest.)

So when New Jersey, meaning the Corzine administration, popped the cork on this tax increase and poured everyone a round of pay-more, well anyone who had just finished a snifter of Courvoisier on March 10th could have envisioned restaurants being stuck with few options.

And if you're a beer drinker, don't think you're getting an automatic pass at the tap just because beer was left off Corzine's tax menu. To keep from scaring away patrons, restaurants and bar owners could spread the pain across the pricing board – pints of beer, entrees, appetizers – and not just jack up the tab for a shot of Applejack. (It makes for good, kneejerk rabble rousing for industry groups to insinuate that prices by the drink will rise in proportion to the tax increase.)

But the point remains: Don't blame the restaurant owners for trying to stay in business. Blame the Legislature and a succession of governors on both sides of the political aisle for missteps and miscues, and a legacy of avoiding doing what's right.



* From The Simpsons, 9th season, episode 20, The Trouble With Trillions

Rapid response ...

As in yours is needed. This missive from the Brewers Association tumbled into the email queue today.

Like we have said, the battle has been joined, and the Brewers Association is conscripting craft beer drinkers to act like a militia and speak out, state by state, against higher excise taxes by writing their lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

New Jersey's own Bob Menendez is on the Senate Finance Committee. One more time, here's his email. And the blue graphic shows addresses for his New Jersey and DC offices.

The best approach is a two-pronged one, meaning don't just email, but send the same comments via conventional mail as well. Also, when you write, cite. Pull information from the Brewers Association's arguments and point out that higher federal taxes will hurt New Jersey craft brewers, who are a source of jobs and state and local taxes, regardless of how many jobs or however much those taxes paid at home are.

It's also worth pointing out – as we have before – that beer, wine and liquor* have been paying Uncle Sam's bills for several decades. It would be unfair and too easy for Congress to tap that source again. But the unfortunate stigma that beer, wine and liquor have attached to them make them the easy – even vulnerable – target. DUI, underage drinking and alcoholism are not solved through higher taxes (nor should any thinking person accept those as reasons to fund healthcare reforms so long as cigarettes are a commercially available product in this country).

If you're over 45, you probably remember when soft drinks came, not in Big Gulps and 20-ounce containers, but in 12-ounce bottles (or even 6 and 10 ounces from vending machines!) and that fast food was a sometimes food, served in modest portions, and not an everyday food. And it should mean something to healthcare reformers, Capitol Hill and the Obama administration that five years ago McDonald's, to its credit, dumped its Super Size menu, thanks, in no small part, to blow-back from those outsized portions making outsized Americans. Oversized sodas and fatty, prepared or prepackaged foods own a piece of the erosion of the nation's overall health and their industries should be asked thusly to share a tax burden.



*Awhile back, Pennsylvania beer writer Lew Bryson put forth the idea that calling beer, wine and liquor alcoholic beverages is an unfortunate choice of words, unfairly tying them to negative connotations of alcoholics and alcoholism. (Lew didn't pontificate; he just pointed out his preference to not phrase references to the beverages in that way.) We share his point of view: Hence, beer, wine and liquor.

Rapid deployment

Last year, it wasn't until the second week of July that cones took shape on our Centennial bines.

This season, it's been surprisingly fast: the first week of June. These are early ones, but cones all the same.

Ad nausea (or ad nauseum, take your pick)

Stupid things the mega brewers say via Madison Avenue (for some reason this annoys us now more than ever):

• Triple-hopped Miller Lite ...
It’s funny when the megas try to woo the mainstream with explanations of the brewing process and build an ad campaign around something as basic as ending a sentence with a period. As we know, a lot of beers – too many to count – get hops thrice: for bittering, flavor and aroma, and that doesn’t include dry-hopping. Watching their spot, you’d think Miller Lite pioneered this as a brewing technique. That is, if your mind is no more discriminating than a palate suited for Miller Lite. Beer enthusiasts on the Web have slaughtered this campaign, mocking it far and wide. And for good reason: For having three hop schedules, you’d never know bland Miller Lite has any hops at all.

• Bud Light, drinkability …
Philly's Don “Joe Sixpack” Russell had this interesting piece on "drinkability." But here's our take on it: Before Bud Light appropriated the word for use in commercials that look like they were cast with extras from Office Space, "drinkability" was tossed around by people who chose any other beer except a flavorless one like Bud Light. Now, thanks to BL’s ongoing campaign, "drinkability" is irretrievably tied to a cheap, nondescript beer from the AB-InBev portfolio. Hey Bud, here are some words you should consider: blather, twaddle and folderol.

• Coors Light ... When the mountains turn blue, it’s cold.
And if you follow the velvet rope inside the bank, you’ll reach the teller window. The mountains may turn blue and the beer may be cold, but it’s still flavorless Coors Light. Some score that is. Say, wasn’t Coors the brewer that misspelled arctic on its labels, cartons and merchandise tie-ins in the mid-1990s, as in Coors Artic Ice? Blue mountains, artic ice … Coors is still brewing up stupid.

On the radar

Here's to your health(care), Part 2

An update on the possibility of beer taxes going up to pay for an overhaul of the US healthcare system.

We've said it before: beer, wine and liquor – partly to assuage the temperance leagues and become legal again those 76 years ago – were turned into vehicles for taxes, and have been paying the freight for three generations hence. The sin taxes.

Granted the spotlight is on the beverage industry right now, but why is it outside the realm of reason to ask Burger King, in addition to Coke and Pepsi, or the owners of Ben & Jerry to pony up something for their contribution toward unhealthy living, however large or small?

Obesity can be, and is, as insidiously debilitating as alcoholism. Overeating just isn't defined as a social ill like drinking to excess is. And if you want to argue that it's presumptuous to think that high-fat foods or beverages with a lot of sugar will be overconsumed, then it's equally presumptuous to assume that beer, wine and liquor will be abused; that everyone who has a drink will drive with a load on; and that everyone under 21 will scheme to get his hands on a pint of Jack Daniel's or a sixpack of beer. (Funny how that's MADD's position.)

For the record, we're not in favor of higher taxes. We're just saying that what's good for the Grey Goose is good for Burger King, so long as BK thinks cheap, fatty, starchy food is good business and what America needs more of.

Anyway, looks like the battle has been joined. Add your voice: Here's the contact info for Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez. (Just remember that Lautenberg was the one who authored the federal .08% threshold for DUI – no, we don't endorse driving with a snootful – and the federal drinking age of 21, both of which were nothing more than Uncle Sam usurping states' authority by threatening to withhold highway funding if the states didn't sign on.)

Beer from the takeout menu

Jersey's brewpubs are neighborhood bars for the folks lucky enough to live that close (imagine being so spoiled as to live within walking distance to one).

For others, especially the traveling beer geeks among us, the brewpubs are a destination, a planned trip, with maybe some local things to do: The Tun Tavern puts you within a couple of blocks of Atlantic City's casinos; the Ship Inn, near the Delaware River in Milford, is a nice weekend afternoon excursion, as is Krogh's in Sparta and Long Valley, which is located in that portion of Washington Township in Morris County that lends a name to the brewpub.

Elsewhere, JJ Bitting is an oasis in the middle of the state, not even a half block from the NJ Transit train platform in Woodbridge, while Triumph feels like a natural fit in Princeton, like some form of it was there when tricorn hats were in fashion in New Jersey.

So yeah, the brewpub experience in Jersey can translate into some distance traversed. Which ususally means justifying the trip by taking home a growler or two of beer. Which means, in this not so happy economy, you might want to know what that jug is going to set you back before you set out on the beer trail.

What follows is handy chart of current growler prices, cobbled together by calling around to the pubs this week. (Double-click the chart to open it larger in another page.)

Cheers.

Centennials 2009

Shots of this year's Centennial hops, their second year in the ground. Back in early spring, they really started rocketing skyward. Burs and sidearm shoots came the last full week of May. Cones will probably start taking shape by mid-June.

How to get a mention without trying

One of the things about the Internet Age is that if you're creating content, sooner or later, someone is going to appropriate it for something. Especially if YouTube is involved.

Sometimes it's stealing, copyright infringement; sometimes it truly is fair use. And sometimes it's just a pleasant surprise.

Browsing around the 'Net this evening, we came across this fair use: the video we produced (and uploaded to YouTube) of the 2008 Philly Beer Week finale, the Real Ale Festival that was held at Triumph Brewing in Old City.

It's a nice surprise because it's on wikihow.com, the World Wide Web's how-to handbook that went online under that banner three years ago. Of course, since it's in the wiki world, it's a collection of user-created entries from a community of folks who, by and large, like to share what they know, à la wikipedia, of course.

Still, it's rewarding, albeit on some small scale, that our video helps illustrate a "how-to" for real ale.

In the Shade with Iron Hill's Chris Lapierre

Iron Hill’s Chris Lapierre will notch a dozen years as a pro brewer this summer, around the time the restaurant and brewery opens its Maple Shade location with him at the helm as brewmaster.

Chris was cool enough to spare time from his schedule and field some questions, via email, about his well-seasoned chops as a brewer. He also reveals an appreciation for lager beers and fondness for a dessert of stout and chocolate cake.

Here's the interview:

Q: How long have you been a professional brewer, and what route did you take to that career path?

A: I've been getting paid to brew since July of 1997. I had homebrewed for about two years before becoming the assistant brewer at the original Dock Street in Philadelphia. The next brewery I worked for, Harpoon in Boston, sent me to Siebel’s concise course in brewing in 2000. Two years ago, Iron Hill split the cost of the American Brewers Guild’s six-month correspondence course with me. I think it’s important to work in a brewery before spending the time and money on school. You need to make sure it’s for you first and get a realistic picture of the work. Also, I think the science and theory stick better if you can visualize the physical aspects in your head while sitting in a classroom, so that’s how I did it.

As far as my skill set goes, I’d say my job is a lot like that of a chef. Not as far as food knowledge and multitasking skills go, but in terms of balancing social and hands-on skills in the same job. I love crafting a tangible product, something you can point at and say, “I made that.” I also love the social aspect of the job. I like teaching people about beer, converting wine drinkers and watery beer drinkers to craft beer, getting people excited about beer. Not too many jobs, including most brewing jobs, incorporate both.

Q: If you weren’t brewing beer, what would you be doing?
A: I’m an avid cyclist. I ride my bike to work when I can. From home to Iron Hill West Chester is 45 miles where I worked as head brewer until now. Maple Shade will be 23 miles from home, a shorter commute! I founded the West Chester Cycling Club, and I’m a member of it and the Bike Club of Philadelphia. So if I had to pick another career, I’d love to guide bicycle tours. Maybe even bike tours with a gastronomic focus.

Q: What are your favorite style(s) to brew and what is it about them you like?
A: In competitions, I’ve been most successful with dry, yeast-driven Belgians, and I really enjoy drinking those beers. But I think the beers I take the most pride in are clean and balanced lagers. They’re often overlooked in a world that’s enamored with “extreme” beers. But they require a lot more skill to get them to taste right than beers loaded with hops, dark malts or booze.

Q: Similar question, favorite style(s) to drink and what is it you enjoy about them?
A: That’s a bit like asking a conductor what his favorite song is. It really depends. It depends on what the weather is like, or what I’m eating or whether I’m drinking just one or several, etc. But, if you ask me right now, this minute, I’m craving either a crisp German pils or a balanced pale ale.

Q: What's your favorite beer and food pairing?
A: Somehow that’s easier for me ... The classic saison and goat cheese is one. But chocolate cake and Russian stout probably wins it for me. I can’t think of a better way to finish a great meal.

Q: How important is it to interact with patrons, and how do you see yourself getting reaction from the folks who come in for a beer?
A: Like I mentioned earlier, mingling and getting to know our customers is a big part of my job. It's something the owners at Iron Hill have always been committed to when it comes to their product. Iron Hill wouldn’t hire a brewer that wasn’t a people person, even if they made the best beer in the world. Customer reaction is always very important as well. I’ve been asked what sort of seasonals I’ll be brewing in Maple Shade, and my answer has been that a lot of it will depend on what our guests want me to brew.

Q: Iron Hill will be the first new brewery in New Jersey in quite some time, and there’s a fair amount of anticipation on the part of beer enthusiasts. Are you folks feeling that as well?
A: Absolutely. I talk to lots of people from New Jersey at beer bars and festivals who have all expressed excitement, and I’ve also been following BeerAdvocate and people are definitely looking forward to our opening.

Q: What do you think beer drinkers in New Jersey will be saying about Iron Hill in the Garden State.
A: I think they’ll be really glad they don’t have to cross a bridge to drink a variety of micros. I live in Philly and a lot of people I meet in some of the city’s best beer bars are from New Jersey who come into town just to drink beer. New Jersey has come a long way as far as beer goes, but it still needs a few more places that focus on craft beer to be on the level with Philadelphia and its suburbs. We’re hoping to get that ball rolling.

In the Shade

They’re working like bees in a hive over at Iron Hill Brewery’s Maple Shade location (124 East Kings Highway).

The brewing equipment – fermenters, serving tanks, kettle and mash tun – arrived for installation on Tuesday. That’s brewer Chris Lapierre pictured below by the tanks on a flatbed, and the top illustration is a rendering of what’s envisioned as the bar area.

There’s lots of work going on at the site, and co-owner Mark Edelson says the July opening is still the game plan.

A homecoming
We’ve said this before, but we’ll repeat it … If you enjoy fresh beer and like having choices, then extend some credit to Mark and his partners, Kevin Davies and Kevin Finn, for wanting to do business in their home state. (FYI: Chris is a Jersey guy, too).

Iron Hill first went on the map in Delaware, then found more success in Pennsylvania. Maple Shade will be Iron Hill’s eighth location, and New Jersey’s first new brewery in 10 years.

But getting here has been no small feat; Jersey just isn’t a business-friendly state, and a lot of so-called “home-rule” control is put in the hands of municipalities (i.e. the building inspector, the plumbing inspector, the electrical inspector … and sometimes these guys don’t talk to each other, or worse, even like one another). Then there’s the staggeringly expensive license to be a bar; that also comes from the host town. Bottom line: Lots of flaming hoops to jump through to become a business that will put money in local, state and federal pockets.

So when July rolls around, by all means, support the new local brewery.

Here's to your health(care)

Here’s a name right now that you need to know: Max Baucus.

Max is a Big Sky guy, a US senator from Montana. He’s also chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. And as we all know the country’s finances are as wobbly as a barstool with uneven legs.

Besides fixing the banks and the jobs scene, Congress and President Obama (who’s been known to enjoy a beer at courtside of an NBA game) are looking for the biggest Band-Aid ever to put on the healthcare system.

That’s why if you’re a beer drinker you need to know about Max (here’s his email). On Wednesday, a news report bubbled up about funding healthcare with higher taxes on beer, liquor and wine. (The current projection is 2 bucks more a case for the consumer; and a shout-out goes to PubScout Kurt Epps for pointing out this story.)

This was probably a train you could hear coming from a long way off: messed up economy – the worst since Big Band tunes were a fresh sound on radio; a messed up healthcare system; changing times; yet another pivotal moment in the nation’s existence. That a higher sin tax would get put on the table is predictable, indeed. (Yet cigarettes have never been pulled as an unsafe product.)

Collision course
But it’s interesting, too, because on Feb. 3, the bill H.R. 836 was introduced, proposing to reduce the $18 per barrel federal beer tax for the big brewers to $9, its pre-George H.W. Bush (Bush the Elder) level, and also halving the $7 tax for craft and pub brewers. (FYI: Jersey’s beer tax is $3.72 a gallon, and for now Gov. Corzine isn’t touching it.) A quick spin over to Beertown.org doesn’t indicate an update on the status of this bill, dubbed the Brewers Excise and Economic Relief Act of 2009 (yes, it forms the acronym BEER).

A little more about BEER: Predictably, it has some folks frowning in a variety of circles, fussing and thrashing about with some figures dropped at the doorstep of Congress: Loss of federal revenue, $1.5 billion; make worse a $200 billion annual toll for dealing with drinking-related health problems; fatten the wallets of foreign beverage companies that account for 90% of US beer production.

On the industry side, the numbers campaign goes like this: brewers, directly or indirectly, pump $190 billion annually into economy and provide more than 1.7 million jobs with wages and benefits of nearly $55 billion.

So with that floating around in the background, there’s the log of healthcare reform tossed onto the fire. This has the potential to become a huge, complex battle, because anyone who has enjoyed the runaround by HorizonBlue Cross knows healthcare needs fixing, and it’s going to take some major money and major reform, but the brewing industry (led by the A-B types) isn't going to just take it. Certainly not after pitching a tax cut.

Already, Coke and Pepsi have wet their pants over a proposal to tax soft drinks (which we support) as a way to kick in toward healthcare. It’s patently absurd to think that soft drinks deserve a pass because there’s no ethyl alcohol in them. When high fructose corn syrup replaced sugar in soft drinks – it’s cheaper than sugar, and corn enjoys some federal propping up via subsidy, about $40 billion worth since the 1990s – the standard size of a bottle of soda jumped a half pint; so now everyone was doing the Dew 20 ounces at a time, or burping from 7-Eleven’s quart-size Big Gulps and 1.5-liter Super Big Gulps. The overconsumption/obesity/diabetes argument applies.

But a higher tax on beer, liquor and wine to pay for healthcare? Well, OK, we understand trying to collect taxes from a number of revenue sources, and we've heard all the complaints about alcohol and health (funny, the wine industry's quick reaction to this was to highlight the health benefits of reds and demand a pass). But here’s one point to consider: Beer, wine and liquor have already paid their dues. In fact, it’s part of New Jersey history: Sea Girt, Aug. 27, 1932, FDR launches his campaign for the White House, vowing to fold the tent on that colossal failure called Prohibition, lift the economy out of the throes of the Great Depression with the help of excise taxes on beer, wine and liquor. You didn’t have to be alive in 1933 to know Prohibition was sent to history’s trash pile. And beer has been paying a lot of Uncle Sam’s bills ever since.

So, we argue that if Congress wants to tap beer for revenue again, the industry deserves something in exchange (and not something that makes just the big brewers happy). And look no further than the three-tier system under which beer became legal again. It’s a confounding collage of regulations that change state to state and has resulted in unfair treatment of small brewers and cozy relationships between distributors and the giant brewers. It has outlived its purpose. But taking on the three-tier sysem isn't going to go over too well, either.

Did we mention the battle is complex?

Beer Wars: The ongoing discussion

If you missed the one-night screening of Beer Wars last month, then perhaps you’d be interested to know the DVD version is coming soon.

That’s from Anat Baron, the director/writer/producer of the film, which trains a spotlight on how craft brewers ply the choppy waters of the U.S. brewing industry and its three-tier system. Anat graciously gave some of her time for a Q&A conducted via email. Her answers arrived on Sunday.

Q: You said you hoped to set into motion a discussion on the topic of small/craft/artisanal brewers and the muscle tactics used by the mega brewers. Do you feel Beers Wars has accomplished that? And if so, how do we sustain that discussion and steer it toward producing change?
A: I don't think that we've reached a wide enough audience. So far, most of the people who saw the film were already craft beer lovers, and so most of the story was familiar to them. I made the film in the hopes of attracting a more mainstream audience. Not necessarily mainstream beer drinkers but people who care about consumerism, capitalism and the future of this country. I know that sounds very grandiose, but to me what's happening in the beer industry is similar to what's going on in many other industries. How do we get a bigger audience? The old-fashioned way: through word of mouth. People telling other people to watch this film. That it will make them think about the choices that they make. The more people see it and talk about it, the bigger the buzz. And then we can start a meaningful discussion. In the mainstream media.

Q: The film met with some harsh criticism in some circles, and you defended your work on the Web site. Do you think those critics missed the point, getting hung up on presentation, and failed to appreciate that, given the current arrangement with the big brewers and three-tier system, there isn't a remote chance of leveling the playing field without some Herculean efforts/major changes?
A: When you make a film, you expect criticism. What surprised me was that most people missed the point. They wanted me to make THEIR version of Beer Wars. I chose to make this film with the characters I did in order to make a point. If other people want to see brewers like Ken Grossman or Fritz Maytag as central characters, they can make their own film. THIS film is about the challenges that the small brewers face, and it uses two characters to show them. The three-tier system continues to be the biggest obstacle to growth for small brewers. The dependence of most distributors on their big brewer “partners” creates a playing field that is completely lopsided. Yes, things are “better” than they were in late 2005 when I stated filming, but they are in no way closer to level. I think the question is WHEN will we change (not abolish, change) the three-tier system, not IF. And all change begins with a few voices that keep getting louder.

Q: Are you satisfied that Beer Wars is part of the record on this topic, something any individual or group can point to as a reference?
A: I certainly hope so. I made the film so there would be a reference point. Anyone could watch it and understand the issues. And hopefully begin to think about what it means not only to them personally but to American business overall.

Q: Some people have asked when the DVD release will be. Looks like it is indeed in the works, is that correct? And for those who have seen the film already, what can they expect on the DVD?
A: Yes, (the) DVD is in production. I am rushing it out because so many theaters had technical issues on April 16th that I wanted to make things right. The DVD will include the film, the panel discussion and some deleted scenes. We hope to start shipping in early June.

Q: Will the film be screened again? And can you say what it cost to pull off the April 16th presentation?
A: We have a theatrical run in June at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Houston and San Antonio. And more to be announced. As to the cost of the April 16th event, I signed a confidentiality agreement, so all I can say is that there was a significant investment to get the word out.

Q: Michael Moore made Pets or Meat as a short-film follow-up to Roger & Me. Do you plan to revisit Beer Wars with some kind of follow-up down the road?
A: I think that the story is ripe for some sort of “sequel.” I'm not sure if it'll be a film but at least a TV or Web follow-up.

Q: Have you stayed in touch with Rhonda Kallman and Sam Calagione (the two brewers/beer companies spotlighted in Beer Wars) since the film was screened?
A: Yes, we have spoken on several occasions and plan to keep in touch going forward. I actually spoke to both of them this past week.

Q: We watched the film in a sparsely filled theater in southern New Jersey (the scant audience is indicative of craft beer’s struggles in the Garden State, plus we have a Bud brewery in Newark). Do you have attendance figures, either hard counts or anecdotal, to show where the film drew the best crowds?
A: The film and event screened in (most of) the 440 theaters spread out across cities and suburbs in most states. We did better in big cities like Boston, New York (and) San Francisco than suburban multiplexes.

Helles-raiser

Some news out of Climax Brewing …

We caught up with Dave Hoffmann on Saturday as he was filtering the maibock that’s going on tap this week at Basil T’s in Toms River, where Dave is the hired-gun brewer.

First things first. We got a preview taste of that Perle-hopped maibock (we had the not quite carbonated, but still quite good, version); the beer’s malty and rich (6.7% ABV), with some signature toasty and caramel notes that don’t overwhelm.

Dave’s been tweaking this recipe here and there for a while but feels like this rendition, with a lighter munich malt than past versions, nails it. So much so that Dave’s thinking about doing a maibock next year under his Hoffmann lager label for his Climax brewery.

And speaking of Climax – and that news tidbit – Dave says his Hoffmann Helles is now a year-round beer.

The beer has always done well for Climax, and Dave says that for a while he’d been thinking about moving it from the seasonal lineup to the flagship brew list. What sealed the deal was a March beer feature (à la the NCAA tourney’s final four) in the Star-Ledger in which the helles was hailed a winner. Dave says he’s been super-busy since then, working to keep the helles in kegs and on store shelves in the signature half-gallon jugs he uses for bottling. He’s had to put his four original 10-barrel fermenters back into service (despite the 10-barrel capacity, he maxes them out at 8 barrels for production purposes).

It’s good to be busy.